Dekendra Raj Thapa

Radio Nepal

August 11, 2004, in Dailekh, Nepal

Rebels in midwestern Nepal's Dailekh District claimed to have killed Thapa, a journalist for state-run Radio Nepal and head of a local drinking water project. Local sources told CPJ that Thapa's murder was connected to his work as a journalist. After the slaying, local rebel commanders told Thapa's family that they intended to kill 10 other journalists in neighboring districts, according to local news reports.

Maoists abducted Thapa on June 26, and a rebel commander said on August 16 that they had executed him on August 11, according to local news reports.

Maoist rebels posted leaflets in Thapa's hometown in Dailekh on August 17 "charging" him with 10 counts of crimes against what the rebels refer to as their "people's regime." Among other accusations, the rebels accused Thapa of spying for state security forces while using his profession as a cover.

Thapa belonged to the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) and was an adviser to the local branch of Human Rights and Peace Society, a Nepalese human rights group. A delegation from FNJ met with Maoists in Dailekh to make appeals on Thapa's behalf before the rebels said they killed him.

Journalists took to the streets of the capital, Kathmandu, on August 18 to protest Thapa's killing, according to local news reports. Local journalists said that his murder and the subsequent death threats were intended to silence the press in the Maoist-controlled midwestern districts of Nepal.

In a rare response to journalists' outrage, Maoist spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara wrote a letter to FNJ in September in which he called the murder a breach of policy, promised to investigate the killing and to respect press freedom, and stated that the party had conducted "self-criticism" on the matter.

In January 2013, police arrested five suspects in connection with the murder. In December 2014, a local court convicted and sentenced them to two years in prison for the abduction and murder, Agence France-Presse reported. Rights activists and the family slammed the sentence as too lenient, reports said. Four other former Maoists accused in the murder case were on the run, the report said.